Strengthening and promoting the international competitiveness of life sciences SMEs beyond Europe are essential tasks in an increasingly globalised environment. One main argument for this is the observed growth effects of cross-border venturing, and the "demonstrated capacity of SMEs to drive economic development at national, regional, and global levels" (European Commission, 2007).

 Meeting the requirements of the accelerated globalisation process that markets have experienced over the last 30 years, and designing tailor-made internationalisation strategies, are crucial goals for sectors such as the biotechnology, biomedicine and medical technology, which are by definition global.

1. Invitation of foreign experts and delivery of workshops with them in Europe. The approach was double-sized, i.e supporting the internationalisation of SMEs and promoting the attractiveness of the bioXclusters regions vis-à-vis the foreign partner.
2. Missions to the target markets, co-organised thanks to the internationalisation agency support.
3. Becoming an information and support hub for the SMEs of the participating regions. Country reports and market information were provided continuously through the bioXclusters blogwww.bioxclusters.eu

The bioXcluster consortium has summarized its findings and lessons learned in a report that can be downloaded here.

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